FAQ Category: Areas of Practice

The taking of the life of an individual resulting from the willful or negligent act of another person or persons. If a person is killed because of the wrongful conduct of a person or persons, the decedent’s heirs and other beneficiaries may file a wrongful death action against those responsible for the decedent’s death. This area of Tort Law is governed by statute. Wrongful death statutes vary from state to state, but in general they define who may sue for wrongful death and what, if any, limits may be applied to an award of damages.

Probate, Trust and Estate Planning attorneys represent clients who run the gamut from the most modest of estates to those that are highly complex, either because of the unusual nature of the client’s assets and liabilities, or because of the nature of the client’s business, commercial and other interests. Services include extensive review, analysis and recommendations with respect to income, gift and estate tax matters, and well as pre- and post-death personal and administrative aspects of a client’s estate. This is another practice area with huge tax implications. Many of these attorneys are CPAs or have accounting background. Attorneys with this expertise are found in many different environments, including private law firms of all sizes, and in organizations such as banks, trust companies, and accounting firms. Clients can be individuals or corporations.

A group of rights designed to protect the use and enjoyment of water that travels in streams, rivers, lakes, and ponds, gathers on the surface of the earth, or collects underground. Water rights generally emerge from a person’s ownership of the land bordering the banks of a watercourse or from a person’s actual use of a watercourse. Water rights are conferred and regulated by judge-made Common Law, state and federal legislative bodies, and other government departments. Water rights can also be created by contract, as when one person transfers his water rights to another.

Insurance benefits paid by the state or federal government to individuals who are involuntarily out of work in order to provide them with necessities, such as food, clothing, and shelter. Unemployment compensation for U.S. workers was established by the federal Social Security Act of 1935 (42 U.S.C.A. §§ 301 et seq.). Unemployment insurance provides workers who have lost their job through no fault of their own with monetary payments for a given period of time or until they find a new job. This compensation is designed to give an unemployed worker time to find a new job equivalent to the one lost without major financial distress. Unemployment compensation is also justified as a way to provide the U.S. economy with consumer spending during an economic downturn.

Probate, Trust and Estate Planning attorneys represent clients who run the gamut from the most modest of estates to those that are highly complex, either because of the unusual nature of the client’s assets and liabilities, or because of the nature of the client’s business, commercial and other interests. Services include extensive review, analysis and recommendations with respect to income, gift and estate tax matters, and well as pre- and post-death personal and administrative aspects of a client’s estate. This is another practice area with huge tax implications. Many of these attorneys are CPAs or have accounting background. Attorneys with this expertise are found in many different environments, including private law firms of all sizes, and in organizations such as banks, trust companies, and accounting firms. Clients can be
individuals or corporations.

There are some lawyers who work exclusively with legal issues affecting Native American
tribes, Indian land and reservations, and treaties. Attorneys are found in federal government
bodies such as the Bureau of Indian Affairs and The Indian Claims Commission, which hears
and determines claims against the United States on behalf of any Indian tribe. Private law firms
also have lawyers who specialize in matters relating to Indian lands and reservations, tribal
rights, and other legal issues affecting Native Americans. Additionally, specific Indian tribes,
which are recognized as sovereign entities with the power to regulate their internal and social
organization, have lawyers who may be members of the tribe themselves, and/or lawyers who
are hired as “general counsel,” to handle the legal affairs of their tribe. Public service agencies
also serve the Native American community with lawyers who specialize in the Indian Child
Welfare Act, and others who serve children, the elderly, or indigent members of the Native
American community.

Traffic laws are the laws which govern traffic and regulate vehicles, while rules of the road are both the laws and the informal rules that may have developed over time to facilitate the orderly and timely flow of traffic.

A broad concept that describes the Substantive Law that governs transactions between business entities, with the exception of maritime transportation of goods (regulated by Admiralty and Maritime Law). Commercial law includes all aspects of business, including advertising and marketing, collections and Bankruptcy, banking, contracts, negotiable instruments, Secured Transactions, and trade in general. It covers both domestic and foreign trade; it also regulates trade between states.

A body of rights, obligations, and remedies that is applied by courts in civil proceedings to provide relief for persons who have suffered harm from the wrongful acts of others. The person who sustains injury or suffers pecuniary damage as the result of tortious conduct is known as the plaintiff, and the person who is responsible for inflicting the injury and incurs liability for the damage is known as the defendant or tort feasor. Three elements must be established in every tort action. First, the plaintiff must establish that the defendant was under a legal duty to act in a particular fashion. Second, the plaintiff must demonstrate that the defendant breached this duty by failing to conform his or her behavior accordingly. Third, the plaintiff must prove that he suffered injury or loss as a direct result of the defendant’s breach.

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New article by attorneys Kirsten Barron and Lisa Saar.
It is a cornerstone of our democratic society, the Constitutional promise of “justice for all”; the right to an attorney if you are charged with a crime, even if you cannot afford one. But for tens of thousands of people in our state who live in poverty and face civil legal crises, a lawyer is not provided to them.